122  Wholesale  Drup-g-ists'  Association.     |Am  jour.  Pharm. 
I      March,  IWl. 
The  Committee  on  Paint,  Oils  and  Glass,  the  advisability  of  con- 
tinuing which  had  been  questioned  the  previous  year,  proved  its 
worth  by  coming  forward  with  an  excellent  report,  including  many 
points  of  undoubted  interest  and  value.  The  Hepburn  Paint  Bill 
was  discussed,  but  what  will  interest  this  meeting  more  was  that 
part  of  the  report  of  the  Committee  which  has  to  do  with  turpentine. 
Under  the  Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Act  it  would  be  necessary  for  tur- 
pentine, or  spirits  of  turpentine,  to  be  unadulterated  and  to  answer 
the  U.S. P.  requirements,  or  else  to  be  properly  labelled.  Under  the 
ruling  whereby  an  article  of  this  character  can  be  labelled  "  For 
technical  use  "  the  dealers  are  enabled  to  sell  an  adulterated  product 
without  fear  of  prosecution.  Hiding  behind  this  regulation,  a  large 
traffic  in  adulterated  turpentine  has  been  carried  on,  and  no  dealer 
to-day  can  be  absolutely  sure  he  is  dispensing  pure  spirits  unless  he 
either  tests  the  goods  himself,  or  knows  personally  that  the  dealer 
from  whom  he  buys  is  absolutely  honest.  There  are  three  common 
adulterants :  First  of  all,  spirits  of  turpentine  is  distilled  from  the 
dip  or  scrape  of  the  living  pine  tree.  The  first  adulterant,  pure  wood 
spirits  of  turpentine,  is  made  by  the  destructive  distillation  of  the 
wood;  another  adulterant  is  common  benzine;  still  a  third  is  com- 
posed of  high  boiling  hydrocarbons  analogous  to  benzine.  Pure 
wood  spirits  naturally  forms  an  excellent  adulterant,  due  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  very  similar  in  physical  properties.  Common  benzine 
is  the  poorest  adulterant,  on  account  of  its  odor  and  physical  prop- 
erties. The  high  boiling  hydrocarbons,  being  odorless  and  very 
similar  to  turpentine  in  physical  properties,  make  an  ideal  adulterant. 
Twenty-three  samples,  most  of  them  obtained  from  suspected 
sources,  were  analyzed  by  the  Committee.  Out  of  the  23  tested, 
17  showed  adulteration;  the  average  amount  of  adulterants  being 
30  per  cent.  The  greatest  amount  of  adulteration  was  found  in  Rus- 
sian turpentine,  which  contained  no  trace  of  turpentine  at  all,  being 
petroleum.  The  lowest  amount  was  10  per  cent.,  this  being  the 
percentage  usually  put  in  by  several  unscrupulous  dealers  in  New 
York  City,  who  sell  their  product  as  "  pure  spirits  of  turpentine." 
The  quotations  of  these  dealers  are  always  a  cent  or  two  under  the 
Official  Naval  Stores  prices.  Another  group  of  turpentine  adulter- 
ators, using  about  35  per  cent,  petroleum,  made  their  headquarters 
in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  One  firm  is  quite  clever,  guaranteeing  their 
product  to  be  "  pure  "  according  to  the  analysis  printed  on  the  head 
of  the  barrel,  and  not  stating  whether  it  was  pure  turpentine  or  pure 
